STICKLEBACKS' NESTS 



the broader leaves between its teeth and tears them up into 

 strips before using them, and the whole structure is so 

 beautifully and compactly woven together that White found 

 it " would roll across the table without being discomposed, 

 though it contained eight little mice that were naked and 

 blind." The nest is lined with vegetable down and other 

 soft materials, and has a tiny opening in the side which, 

 however, the mother takes care to close whenever she leaves 

 her little ones while she goes to feed. So ingeniously and 

 perfectly does she cover up the hole under these circum- 

 stances that it is a matter of impossibility to discover where 

 the entrance has been. The young are soon able to look 

 after themselves, and they leave the nest before the herbage 

 of which it is composed has had time to wither. Their 

 nursery is thus always of the same colour as its surround- 

 ings an important consideration as far as the safety of its 

 occupants is concerned. 



We find other builders of ball-shaped nests amongst the 

 fishes, a circumstance which has always seemed very wonder- 

 ful to naturalists. 



Everybody knows the common Stickleback, a pretty little 

 fish which is very plentiful in our ponds and streams. It is 

 no favourite amongst anglers, because it often comes to 

 nibble at their bait and arouses vain hopes which end in 

 disappointment ; while a man who has a fish-pond which he 

 wishes t6 have well stocked with carp and the like becomes 

 very angry indeed if he finds sticklebacks there, for their 

 numbers increase rapidly and they are greedy creatures, so 

 that they very soon destroy all the other inhabitants of the 

 pond. 



With all the rest of the world against them, it is but fair 

 that sticklebacks should receive a little kindly attention 

 from learned people who do not worry about practical 



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